New Mexico Tourism Issues Digital Media RFP

The State of New Mexico and Tourism Department has issued an RFP for Website Development and Redesign. They seek a digital firm for creating, designing and developing a new website for the New Mexico Tourism Department (www.newmexico.org) (NMTD) and the Department owned, but independently funded New Mexico Magazine (www.nmmagazine.com) (the Magazine), and to establish a Contract through competitive negotiations for the procurement of website development services to promote and grow domestic tourism to the State of New Mexico. The goal is to create visually impactful and informative websites, which are simple for travelers and readers to navigate, interact with, and search.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Four years ago, the New Mexico Tourism Department (NMTD) developed a branding strategy to revitalize domestic tourism, a lead driver of the state’s economy. At that time, visitation was in decline and the State suffered from both low awareness as a vacation destination overall and key misperceptions, namely that New Mexico is a hot, dry desert with very little to do. The New Mexico True brand (Brand) was created to drive awareness and overcome those false perceptions by showcasing what is True: authentic adventures steeped in the rich culture that can only be found in New Mexico.

Since the launch of the Brand in April of 2011, New Mexico has achieved record-breaking visitation levels – driving more visitors, who are spending more dollars than ever before. A Return on Investment study conducted by Longwoods International indicated a 7:1 return for New Mexico True advertising, showing that for every one dollar invested in advertising, seven dollars is returned to the New Mexico tax base.

Newmexico.org is the official travel resource for the State of New Mexico and generates more than 2.5 million user sessions per year. The 2012 website redesign was a ground up design-build project including the selection of Umbraco CMS (.NET) for content management, extensive backend development and content migration to Umbraco. The re-design also included a separate, stand-alone mobile-optimized site. In addition to the desktop website, the Umbraco CMS feeds content to the stand-alone mobile site. The Umbraco CMS allows staff to create, edit, schedule and publish/unpublish content on the websites.

There is also a custom developed platform that allows for businesses and organizations aligned with the tourism industry in New Mexico, upon creating an account, to create listings add events, and promote deals or special offers. The process is moderated by NMTD personnel and integrates directly into the current website. The current New Mexico True marketing plan reaches six (6) targeted fly markets, regional drive markets, State residents, as well as select national niche audiences. The current media plan employs cable television, cinema, transit/taxi, airport display, billboards, magazine, radio, and digital advertising as well as social and native content online. Additionally, NMTD sponsors production and distribution of New Mexico True Television, a 30 minute travel show which airs in-state and in select regional markets.

BACKGROUND ON NEW MEXICO MAGAZINE

The oldest state magazine in the nation, and a consistent national and regional award-winner, New Mexico Magazine has a total monthly audience reach of more than 460,000; with more than 293,000 print readers and 167,000 users and followers across our digital platforms. The New Mexico Magazine website (nmmagazine.com) was launched in 2013, piggy-backing on the NMTD’s new site. With over a third-of-a-million unique sessions a year, and an average time on site of a minute and a half, the website has provided readers of New Mexico Magazine, and interested parties from around the world a chance to experience breathtaking photography of, and beautiful storytelling about, all things New Mexico: compelling statewide destinations, events, and festivals, expert recommendations on lodging, dining, and shopping, the artists, artisans, purveyors, and products unique to New Mexico and its heritage, exploration, outdoor adventures, and entertainment, and in-the-know guidance.

SCOPE OF WORK

The Contractor shall provide the following to the Agency: 1. Collaboration with NMTD and the Magazine on the creation of website art, layout, structure and navigation. 2. Development of website features and infrastructure, including front and back-end coding; integration of third party APIs; and testing/quality assurance. 3. Management of a project roadmap. 4. Migration of content from our current websites to the new platform. 5. Assurance that all of existing functionality present on newmexico.org, the NMTD 6. Partners Portal extranet, and on nmmagazine.com is maintained except where directed by NMTD and the Magazine. 7. Implementation of new features/components including, but not limited to, dynamic and/or prioritized content, content tagging and related content (user experience and/or native advertising), improved rich and multimedia integration and other site features including, but not limited to how to best incorporate rich media, dynamic content, enhanced mapping functionality, email capture, vacation guide orders/downloads (among other guide requests) and social media engagement throughout the website. 8. Retained services including future development, technical support, training, maintenance and reporting. 9. Recommendations for the most appropriate platform to match the Agency needs and perform functionality updates as needed. 10. A content audit. 11. Ability and willingness to collaborate with other development companies that may be contracted with NMTD. For example, booking, platforms, ticket sellers or reservation agents. 12. Ability to (but not a mandatory deliverable) have the websites developed on LAMP server or comparable environment. The current website is built on a MS windows server, but the Agency prefers a LAMP server or comparable environment 1.2 Additional Magazine Requirements

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